The world has discovered what we've known all along here in New Mexico ...chile is habit-forming! Whether enjoying dishes made with pungent green chile or mellow dried red peppers, we're hooked! And while the same ingredient in chile that supposedly makes it slightly habit-forming (capsaicin) is also the one that may burn your tongue, it's the delicious variety of flavors in chile cuisine that we love, not just the heat. For our purposes here, we're not going to explore Jalapenos, Habaneros, Cayenne, or the multitude of other peppers preferred mainly for their heat. When we say "Chile", we'll be talking about the long New Mexico Green/Red types, with names like "Big Jim", "Rio Grande","Sandia", etc. In other parts of the country you'll see similar (but not quite the same!) chile peppers called "Anaheim" peppers. In our neck of the woods, it's "Hatch" or "Mesilla Valley" chile that we crave. (By the way, for a brief treatise on various names used to market chile, go HERE.)
Two Great Chiles - Both From The Same Plant!
LEARN HOW TO ROAST GREEN CHILE AT HOME, AND HOW TO USE DRIED RED CHILE PODS IN THE FOLLOWING VIDEOS ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL.
SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO'S "CHILE TRAIL"
Okay, what's the difference between "Chile" (with an "e"), and "Chili" (with an "i")? Order "chile" in New Mexico and the immediate response is usually "Red or Green?" Chile as we know it here is a variety of dishes where the major ingredient is either fresh green chile, or a sauce made from rehydrated dry red chile pods. Don't get us wrong...we occasionally enjoy a "good steamin' bowl of Chili", but we've come to demand much more than ground beef, beans, and cheese of our Chile!
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NEW MEXICO CHILE, WE RECOMMEND:
The Chile
Pepper Institute - Maintained by the New Mexico State University College of
Agriculture and Home Economics, this site contains a wealth of interesting
information.